1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for setting formed articles such as ceramic briquettes provided in cross rows on a conveyor belt.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art
Kamphues in U.S. Pat. No. 3,887,060 discloses an apparatus wherein ceramic briquettes brought together in a setting formed by longitudinal and cross rows are lifted by strips from rolls and are transported in the direction of the longitudinal direction of the roll axes until the first cross row in the direction of motion encounters a resistance by which the last lifted up cross row is again slid off the strips onto the setting support. The other lifted up cross rows are moved on with lifted resistance till reaching the desired cross row distance from the strips. Then by the renewed action of a correspondingly adjusted resistance another cross row is again slid from the strips onto the setting support. Such stepwise sliding off of all cross rows from the support strips onto the setting support results in a setting with predetermined distances between the individual cross rows. The support strips thereby pass over a distance corresponding to the width of the full setting.
In another known apparatus disclosed in German Offenlegungsschrift No. DT-OS 2,758,648 for separating closely spaced ceramic briquettes there are provided narrow, horizontally disposed, separated bands located between driven rolls which engage within the gaps between the rolls and which can move up and down and which are movable from each other and against each other. In the separation process the separated bands lift up a longitudinal row of ceramic briquettes from the rolls and the bands move away from each other with the same speed. The bands are driven such as to transport the halves of the longitudinal rows against the direction of motion of the bands wherein the bands unwind under the ceramic briquettes resulting in the ceramic briquettes passing in a tipping way and placed at distances onto the rolls. The distances between the ceramic briquettes are drawn such that the drive of the bands is switched off after each transfer of a ceramic briquette and such that the ceramic briquettes remaining on the bands are moved on by those which are already located on rolls. The separated bands pass over a distance corresponding to half a setting. After the moving apart of the ceramic briquettes the bands are lowered and move back into the starting position.
In another embodiment the separated bands are disposed tilted against each other. In the moving apart process of the ceramic briquettes the bands lift the ceramic briquettes up starting from the outside in longitudinal rows, wherein the bands are driven such that the ceramic briquettes are moved away from the others toward the outside. In this process the bands have to be lifted and the lift motion is controlled such that it can be interrupted providing certain distances between the moved away ceramic briquettes of the longitudinal row.
It is disadvantageous in these conventional machines that the ceramic briquettes pass during the formation of the setting from a higher level plane (support strips or bands) in a tipping way onto a lower level plane (rolls). This tipping causes an inaccurate transfer of the ceramic briquettes, since the ceramic briquettes can be distorted hereby based on their more or less sizable adhesion at the higher level plane and the distances between the individual cross rows or ceramic briquettes, respectively become inaccurate. This danger is also especially present with the bands disposed at an angle, since the ceramic briquettes can be distorted based on the resiliency and sliding of the bands in the transfer from the rolls. For the same reason the distances cannot be maintained, since the lift motion cannot be determined accurately, and it therefor occurs that only one ceramic briquette is moved. This occurs in particular when settings or longitudinal rows are positioned for ceramic briquettes of small thickness. It can occur that the ceramic briquettes during the transport with the gripper for setting fall out of the same, since they are not held sufficiently tight by the grippers.
In the conventional machines the higher level plane (support strips or bands) during the gap formation, which receives the ceramic briquettes, has to cover a distance corresponding to the full width of a setting. Only then the support strip or band plane, respectively, can be lowered below the level of the plane formed by the rolls and then be returned to the starting position to begin the formation of a new setting or a spaced apart longitudinal row, respectively. This course of motion takes a lot of time and provides a negative factor for the efficiency.
In addition, the conventional machines have the disadvantage that upon transfer and receiving, respectively, of the ceramic briquettes onto or from the rolls, respectively, an edge of the transferred or received, respectively, ceramic briquette chafes along the following ceramic briquette possibly causing chipping of the ceramic briquette.
In the bands disposed at an angle the velocity of the bands has to be selected depending on the lift motion of the bands thus requiring a slow motion of the bands, since otherwise no spaced distances would be effected between the ceramic briquettes.
Therefor, a correspondingly long time span passes for the separation of the ceramic briquettes, which negatively affects the formation of the setting, especially since the lifting motion of the bands has to be interrupted while the spaces are drawn.